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WASHINGTON — Scandal-plagued US Rep. David Wu yesterday quit Congress after receiving an unmistakable message from party leaders: Don’t be a Weiner.
Democratic Party heavyweights — still smarting from former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s foot-dragging exit after his humiliating sexting scandal in June — pressured the Oregon pol to quickly leave his post after being accused of having an “unwanted sexual encounter” with the 18-year-old daughter of a high-school pal.
“There’s recent history here — to look only weeks ago to see what another colleague went through,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the Democratic Caucus chair, who spoke to Wu before his announcement.
Hinting at the way Weiner dragged out his departure while getting hounded by party leaders as more and more evidence of his sleazy online exploits accumulated, Larson added, “One thing you want to do is you want to be decisive and you want to do it in as timely fashion as you can.
“His main concern [was for] his children,” he added of Wu. “Certainly, [the Weiner scandal] was fresh in his memory . . . how something can unravel.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday had called for an Ethics Committee investigation into the accusations against Wu, a seven-term lawmaker. He has admitted to having a sexual encounter with the teen last Thanksgiving, but says it was consensual.
“I cannot care for my family the way I wish while serving in Congress and fighting these very serious allegations,” Wu, 56, said in his statement yesterday.
He said he would resign after the debt crisis is resolved, a time no one in DC can pinpoint.
Oregon’s two Democratic senators had called on Wu to quit, describing the accusations as “both jarring and exceptionally serious.”
In a bizarre episode earlier this year, Wu had e-mailed staffers a photo of himself wearing a tiger suit.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-LI), who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and had multiple conversations with Weiner during his scandal, said he didn’t speak to Wu at all about his troubles.
Referring to Wu’s exit, he said: “He was fast about it.”
Israel said every lawmaker has to consider three issues when deciding whether to quit: “What is best for the country? What is best for their district? And what is best for the caucus?”